That’s not where Wired’s offices are. Image: Roberto Baldwin/Wired
Updated 5:15 PM PST with comment from Apple.
Disgruntled users across the globe are flocking to share their displeasure with Apple’s new Maps app, which has a tendency to mislocate businesses, misplace cities, streets and towns, and display warped Dali-esque distortions of skyscrapers, bridges and other landmarks.
Apple replaced Google Maps with its own app in iOS 6, released on Wednesday, cutting its closest tie to smartphone rival Google. But the seemingly premature launch of the Apple app is turning into a significant black eye in an otherwise well-received operating system upgrade.
“The maps for my hometown in iOS 6 are not only extremely ugly (and old) but not a singular business has a correct location as far as I can see,” Apple forum member björnfrommalmö posted Wednesday. “Anyone else getting really annoyed by this switch?”
“iOS 6 Maps” and “Google Maps” began trending on Twitter Thursday, and a popular Tumblr emerged to provide a central location for the numerous Maps fails.
Google shows that Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands is not a road-less wasteland. Image: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps Tumblr
ReadWriteWeb editor Dan Frommer documented a number of #ios6pocalypse fails in New York City, namely the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge, which in 3-D fly-over mode appear to have suffered an earthquake. The Washington State Department of Transportation even got in on the action, tweeting, “Although #ios6 may say differently, we can assure you that the Tacoma Narrows Bridges have not melted” with a link to Maps’ rendering of the bridge.
While some of the problems, like fly-over fails, tend to the humorous, the reality is that relying on Apple’s just-released mapping surface could be downright dangerous. Buzzfeed’s Matt Buchanan noted that a friend ended up at a “mobile home estate” next to an abandoned doctor’s office instead of an actual clinic. Imagine if that had happened during a life-threatening scenario.
“We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and that we are just getting started with it,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Wired. “Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.”
That’s not where the Washington Monument is. Image: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps Tumblr
“The issue with maps clearly has been a challenge for Apple,” Gartner analyst Brian Blau told Wired via e-mail. “It’s not an impossible problem to solve, but building, deploying and maintaining a sophisticated mapping service is not something that can be done overnight.”
Indeed, developing your own mapping technology is inherently hard, and something competing services like Google and Nokia-owned Navteq have spent years on. Apple’s endeavors, meanwhile, look to date back only around three years with the purchase of mapping-related startups Placebase, Poly9, and C3 Technologies. Back when Google Maps first launched, it too was plagued with inaccuracies that sent users back into the arms of competitors.
But in an age when we’ve come to depend on smartphones for delivering accurate information at a moment’s notice — particularly mapping information — inaccuracies are a big deal.
Although Apple has released products like Siri and the original Apple TV, which weren’t quite ready for primetime at launch, Apple rarely releases a product that actually lessens the overall user experience. The last time that happened was with MobileMe; Ping, although a failure, didn’t necessarily worsen the iTunes experience noticeably.
Apple has around 30 Maps-related job positions currently available, including a number of “iOS Software Engineer – Maps” positions which involve things like working on 3-D fly-over models, mesh generation of terrain, and road rendering, according to the job listing.
But for now, those who are rightly wary of relying on Apple’s Maps have a pretty easy workaround, if they don’t want to rely on another third-party app: Just visit Google Maps in Safari and add a bookmark to your homescreen. Or accept the fact that you may end up in a field or the middle of a river instead of your intended destination.
A search for a particular street landed me a few blocks over from the correct one in Oxford, Mississippi. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/ios-6-maps-problems/
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